The development of prosocial risk‐taking behavior: Mechanisms and opportunities

Abstract

Many young people are inclined toward risk taking and also toward helping other people. Prosocial risk taking is a term that can describe different ways that youth provide significant instrumental and emotional support to family members, friends, and strangers, even when it involves a personal risk. In this article, we review research about different types of prosocial risk taking and highlight examples, emphasizing a developmental perspective by examining change across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Research to date suggests that young people are more likely to engage in prosocial risk taking when they are more tolerant of uncertainty, have greater sensation‐seeking, perspective‐taking, and empathy, and when they are motivated by reputational concerns. Individual differences in prosocial risk‐taking behavior depend on youth's access to opportunities to explore, practice, and experience positive social feedback. Providing opportunities for youth to direct their risk‐taking tendencies toward prosocial outlets may help minimize risks to their psychosocial health and promote individual and community well‐being.